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Santa Clara County has seen an encouraging decline in child death rates, while simultaneously being marred by repeat tragedies and scandals as a result of bad homes and youth welfare leaders bungling foster cases.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday grappled with official findings that most deaths of children under the county’s care between 2021 and 2023 — a time when the county was in a pandemic lockdown and transitioning out of it — were avoidable. A February county medical examiner report studied 108 out of a total 315 child deaths and found an increasing trend of deaths occurring in dysfunctional households, with issues such as drug use and school truancy being factors in some cases.
The report shows 12 children died by neglect; 12 from homicide by parents, guardians or third parties; 17 died from inadequate caretaking; 15 from drug overdoses; 22 died by suicide; and 18 deaths were deemed to be connected with other adolescent high-risk behavior.
“This is the first time that a child death review item has ever been heard in front of the board, which to me is unbelievable,” District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, who has been championing child welfare reforms, said at the meeting. “(The report) clearly states most of the deaths were preventable. That is a real shame.”
Arenas called for staff to report back with a plan for how county departments can use childhood trauma information to better support families, as well as an analysis on how state and federal laws limit the county’s ability to investigate abuse allegations.
Officials balanced the findings from the county medical examiner report with more positive trends. Public health officials at the meeting said the all-cause death rate among youth ages 0-17 has decreased from an average of 29.8 deaths per 100,000 children from 2015 through 2019 to 27 deaths per 100,000 children from 2020 through 2024. As of 2024, the county’s child death rate was well below state and national averages of 37 and 49.4 deaths per 100,000 children, respectively.
“We do see a statistically significant improvement,” Sarah Rudman, health officer and director of the Public Health Department, said at the meeting. “This overall improvement happened despite the onset of fentanyl in our community, which we know is a national trend.”
It comes as the state is expanding its oversight of the county’s child welfare system, which has seen three child foster death scandals in three years. Just days before the supervisors’ discussion, another child — an 8-year-old girl — died after being taken off life support. She was found unresponsive in a home that authorities said was the subject of multiple child welfare calls.
In April, the county placed 10 social workers on leave following the alleged sexual assault and killing of 2-year-old Jaxon Juarez, who the county’s Department of Family and Children’s Services placed in the home of a cousin with a criminal record of child endangerment.
The report also revealed three other child abuse-related deaths occurred after multiple referrals to the child welfare agency were dismissed. The report voiced concern that a recent state law — Assembly Bill 2085 — compels the county to conflate parental neglect with socioeconomically disadvantaged environments.
There were 1,203 children receiving county child welfare services in February 2025 — with roughly 600 in out-of-home placements such as foster care and group homes, according to a county report.
The county is working to implement reforms and recommendations from the report and the state relating to child welfare policies. Board President Otto Lee voiced concern these efforts come at a time of major cuts as the county struggles to absorb its worst budget shortfall in the last few decades.
“We need more direct investment and prevention, screening, education, services to prevent more baby deaths,” Lee said at the meeting. “So while we are doing this, are we cutting too much? Do we need to reduce and remove these cuts to suicide prevention services?”
County Executive James Williams said his budget recommendations have taken pains to minimize impacts on children and youth. He said some early proposals to cut social workers and probation services were left out of the final proposal.
“That necessitated identifying cuts elsewhere at the county organization,” Williams said.
The county continues to work on child welfare reforms in light of Juarez’s death. His case also remains under investigation. A common criticism of the county revolves around policies prioritizing family togetherness over child safety.
Some public speakers on Tuesday criticized county leaders for deflecting blame for their policies onto the overworked social workers tasked with carrying them out — often without clear direction or with contradicting messages. Others cautioned against knee-jerk reactions leading to an increase in child removals.
“Removals are harmful and don’t guarantee safety,” Maggie Cockayne, a family defense attorney at the Dependency Advocacy Center, said at the meeting. “In fact, increases in child welfare cases only spread staff more thin. Stop the foster care panic, listen to the experts and don’t let emotions dictate policy.”
This story was written by Brandon Pho for San Jose Spotlight. The original version on this article can be read here.
Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.
